1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for electronic financial transactions, and more particularly, to a web browser-based system for the execution of transactions by clients of a financial institution.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Corporate and individual clients of banks and other financial institutions have traditionally accessed the electronic cash management systems of their banks by phone, fax, or dumb terminal at the low end of the service spectrum, and by Microsoft Windows™ or DOS-based workstations at the high end. Recently, there has been an increase in the popularity of banking on the World Wide Web, as more and more businesses and individuals are recognizing the benefits of performing online transactions over the ever-growing internet. With the recent explosion in e-commerce, the increasing acceptance of the Internet as a less expensive and more efficient way of doing business, and the advent of new server technology and sophisticated online security systems, online banking by both businesses and individuals is becoming ever more common. Banks desiring to stay competitive must therefore provide to their clients internet-based electronic cash management (ECM) services. According to a 1997 research study, most banks predicted that within a year they would be providing browser-based electronic banking services to their corporate and institutional clients. Despite the increased customer demand for such services, less than 2% of banking services were provided via a web browser, according to research in 1999. It has been predicted that by 2005, electronic transaction-based cash management revenue will reach $12.8 billion.
One hurdle to implementing unified browser-based ECM has been the wide range of hardware and software systems used by financial institutions. Even within a single financial institution, multiple hardware and software systems have made integration difficult. During the microcomputer revolution of the early 1980s, in which computers started becoming smaller, faster and less expensive, financial institutions raced to install “treasury workstations” into their top clients' offices, resulting in enormous outlays. The treasury workstations included terminals or microcomputers directly linked to back office systems in the corresponding financial institution, so that clients of the financial institutions could perform many banking and other financial transactions on-site. Such workstations performed functions such as corporate funds transfer, international funds transfer, balance and transaction reporting, securities management, and bank relationship management. Toward the late 1980s, banks and other financial institutions became unable to justify the huge expense of developing and re-developing these treasury workstations, which, although a boon to their clients, did not directly increase the revenue of the financial institutions. Thus, in order to increase their own business, the financial institutions ended up buying, borrowing, and developing new workstations focused on increasing the volume of bank core transactions, including elaborate PC front ends for funds transfer, letters of credit, securities, commercial paper, FX, and account reporting. Some of the larger financial institutions ended up with many different systems, each performing similar or identical functions. The new workstations included, for example, “letter of credit” workstations, “commercial paper issuance” workstations, “custody” workstations, and “balance and transaction reporting” workstations. Despite the availability of these new workstations, however, many financial institutions and their clients continued to use the older treasury workstations, often still using dumb terminal systems developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The decentralization of client-delivery systems was deliberate and resulted in speed-to-market advantages. Unfortunately, costs were now escalating due to duplication of development and support organizations. Moreover, clients ended up with many different systems, passwords and technologies just to deal with the same financial institution, whereby the financial institution appeared disorganized and fragmented to the client. There is thus a need to integrate multiple data sources and a variety of workstation technologies, platforms and communications methods into a single point of access for the financial institution client.